LNP LEADER
’Fresh blood’ Coast MP in line to replace Nicholls
KEY LNP sources are backing a private push for newly elected Gold Coast MP David Crisafulli to be the next leader of the party.
Conservative heavyweights said Mr Crisafulli would challenge for Tim Nicholls’ position when the LNP party room meets as early as this week.
LNP sources said the party needed “fresh blood” and older MPs like Surfers Paradise member Mr Langbroek were no longer effective.
“The feeling among a party members is that the incumbent MPs have done their dash,” one senior source said.
The LNP lost a handful of frontbench MPs at Saturday’s State poll, including Scott Emerson and Ian Walker.
The party also recorded a 7.8 per cent swing in the primary vote on the 2015 election.
Mr Crisafulli would not deny challenging for the position yesterday, saying “we shouldn’t be talking about that”, but he is expected to join Everton MP Tim Mander and Deputy Leader Deb Frecklington among those who put up their hand.
Mr Mander already challenged for the leadership, losing a spill to Mr Nicholls in May last year.
Mr Langbroek, the LNP leader from 2009 to 2011, declined to comment yesterday on whether he would challenge as he wanted to “see how things settle first”.
“It would be really nice to see some good leadership come from the Gold Coast,” LNP Broadwater branch member Gary Mays said.
Mr Nicholls yesterday dodged questions about moves to topple him as party leader. “I’m not going to talk about any of those sort of things today,” he said.
Mr Crisafulli, the local government minister in the Newman Government, was given the seal of approval by federal Fadden MP and LNP powerbroker Stuart Robert.
“In the future (and I don’t necessarily mean next week) David Crisafulli has everything that would be required of being a party leader,” Mr Robert said.
He said it would be impossible to ignore someone of Mr Crisafulli’s experience when it came time to select a cabinet or shadow cabinet.
Mr Robert said Mr Crisafulli also signalled a “refresh” of the experienced faces of the LNP on the Gold Coast.
The federal MP attended Mr Crisafulli’s post-election party on Saturday night.
Mr Crisafulli was a journalist before he was elected to parliament in 2012 in the North Queensland seat of Mundingburra. He lost the seat in 2015 and moved to the Gold Coast with his wife Tegan and two girls, Georgia and Nicola, to start a local government consulting business.
“I was a young guy and I needed a kick up the backside and boy did I get one,” he told supporters on Saturday night of his loss in 2015.
Mr Crisafulli said he had to start again once he moved to the Gold Coast, knocking on doors of people he did not know to get their support.
“It was a great political loss and it will make me a better politician,” he said.
Mrs Crisafulli played a pivotal role in the Broadwater campaign, organising rosters, volunteers and her husband’s election day schedule.
Mr Crisafulli’s parents flew down from Townsville midweek to help at polling booths.
DAVID CRISAFULLI HAS EVERYTHING THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED OF BEING A PARTY LEADER
UP TO 10 federal Liberal MPs – including Immigration Minister Peter Dutton – would lose their seats if voter discontent towards the party in Queensland is replicated at the next federal election.
The dire 7 per cent swing against the Liberals and Nationals in the state on Saturday has fed into growing unrest within the Federal Government, as angry Queensland Nationals blame the Prime Minister Malcolm